Skates are comprised of two main components, a shoe or boot portion and a base portion including a gliding portion, wheels or a blade, attached to a frame, the frame being designed to mediate attachment of the gliding portion to the base of the boot portion. Ice skates typically have a single blade that is an integral part of the frame. The integrated blade and frame attach directly to the base of the boot portion of the skate. Roller skates generally have two pairs of wheels, one pair in each the front and the back of the skate. Each pair of wheels may be attached to a separate frame or all four may be attached to a single frame. In-line skates generally have four or five wheels arranged one after the other in a single line in the running direction of the skate. The wheels are rotatably mounted on a single frame or chassis, and the frame can be attached to the sole of the shoe by fasteners or can be integrated into the sole of the shoe. An example of a skate of this type is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,983. Other examples are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,278 of Wittman and U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,860 of Conte.
The frame is typically fixed in a single position on the bottom of the boot portion of the skate. Therefore, the weight of the skater is always in a fixed position over the frame and gliding portion of the skate. Some skates have been developed to allow for the adjustment of the frame relative to the boot. A family of patents issued to Meibock et al. including U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,848,796 and 6,254,110, teach a moveable frame that may be adjusted both laterally and longitudinally relative to the boot. The base of the boot portion of the skate contains an oversized cavity to receive a plate containing a threaded opening therethrough to receive a complementary threaded fastener which is sized to extend through the lower frame into the plate. Upon loosening of the fastener, the plate can move longitudinally and latitudinally in the cavity allowing the position of the frame to be adjusted. Upon tightening, the plate becomes fixed in a single position. One problem with this arrangement is that the frame may shift relative to the boot on impact.
Beniot (U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,723) teaches a frame comprising a housing designed to accept a wedge shaped element, the housing being attached to the bottom of a boot portion of a skate, and a variety of gliding elements attached to a wedge shaped adaptor for insertion into the housing. The wedge shaped adaptor is capable of cooperating with a corresponding housing on the sole of the boot portion of the skate. The gliding portion is secured to the boot by tightening of a lateral member to obtain linkage by a progressive wedging effect. Such a system allows for the use of interchangeable gliding elements and their attachment in a variety of positions relative to the length of the boot portion of the skate.
Gierveld (U.S. Pat. RE35,993) teaches a skate with a frame wherein the frame has slotted holes that are oriented either parallel or perpendicular to the running direction of the skate. Screw bolts extend from the bottom of the outer sole of the skate boot through the frame. The frame can be affixed into place using an adjusting ring with an eccentrically placed hole for the lateral positioning of the frame, wherein the ring is fixed in position by tightening the screw. Alternatively, the slotted hole may contain an edge zone with ribs extending transversely to the longitudinal direction of the hole to be used in conjunction with a positioning ring with complementary ribs, through which the screw bolt may extend. Upon tightening of the screw, the ribs are engaged. Thus, the frame is held in a fixed position longitudinally on the base of the boot portion of the skate.